Wednesday's big issue: Organ donors

Should organ donors be told who organs have come from before they go under the knife?

Do you think that people who smoke or use drugs should be able to sign up to the organ donation register? It's emerged that organs from people who smoke or use drugs are allowed to be given to transplant patients, but NHS bosses have said that because of better treatment for many medical conditions such as high blood pressure, organs that are made available for donation are often older and in a worse condition than if they were from a younger person.

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Cystic fibrosis sufferer Lyndsay Scott died last year, five months after being given a lung transplant. In an inquiry after her death, her family learned that the lungs she had been given had come from a donor who was a heavy smoker. Her family now claim that more 'marginal' organs, that aren't as healthy as they should be, are being used due to a shortage of donations. Other stories like Lyndsay's have emerged, including an Iraq veteran whose new lungs later developed cancer, and a man who died following a heart transplant, where the organ was later found to have come from a cocaine addict who smoked and was at risk of hepatitis.

Twenty-six per cent of transplants now make use of 'high-risk' or ' marginal' organs. But when a patient goes under the knife, they rarely know anything about the quality of a donor organ.

What do you think? Should organ donors know where their organs are coming from before they sign transplant papers? Or will this just discourage people who are less healthy, older or smokers to sign up for organ donation?

If you needed an urgent transplant, would you refuse if the organ came from a smoker or someone who was less than healthy?

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